DIGITALEUROPE Statement WHO Recommendation to add GBL and BDO to Schedule I Psychotropic Substances Convention

We strongly urge EU Member States which are also Members of the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) to vote against the listing of Gammabutyrolactone (GBL) (CAS No. 96-48-0) and 1,4-butanediol (BDO) (CAS No 110-63-4) on the Convention on Psychotropic Substances at the Vote of the CND that will take place on 13 March in Vienna.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has recommended to the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Substances that both GBL and BDO be added to Schedule I of the 1971 Convention on Psychotropic Substances. Both GBL and BDO are widely used industrial chemicals, including in the information and communications technology (ICT) and electronics industry and its global supply chain. If this recommendation is approved at an upcoming meeting of this Convention, the use of these chemicals would be restricted to certain scientific and medical uses and the ICT industry would effectively be prohibited from continuing legitimate uses of these substances critical to the manufacture of its products. Countries should ensure that GBL and BDO are not listed under the 1971 Convention on Psychotropic Substances.